I was interviewed recently on a large Los Angeles radio station about the existence of Hell. One caller objected to the duration of punishment in Hell. From his perspective, the idea our temporal, finite sin on earth warrants an eternal punishment of infinite torment in Hell was troubling, at the very least. The punishment does not seem to fit the crime; in fact, the disproportionate penalty makes God seem petty and vindictive, doesn’t it? Why would God torture infinitely those who have only sinned finitely? I think it’s important to define the nature of Hell and sin before our discussion of the eternal nature of punishment can have any meaning or significance. Objections related to the eternal nature of Hell result from a misunderstanding of four principles and terms:
Objections related to the eternal nature of Hell result from a misunderstanding of four principles and terms Share on X
We Fail to Understand the Meaning of Spiritual “Torment”
The Bible says those who are delivered into Hell will be tormented, and the degree to which they will suffer is described in dramatic, illustrative language. But, the scripture never describes Hell as a place where God or His angels are actively “torturing” the souls of the rebellious. “Torture” is the sadistic activity that is often perpetrated for the mere joy of it. “Torment” results from a choice on the part of the person who finds himself (or herself) suffering the consequences. One can be in constant torment over a decision made in the past, without being actively tortured by anyone.
We Fail to Understand the Insignificance of Sin’s “Duration”
If someone embezzles $5.00 a week from their employer’s cash register they will have stolen $260.00 over the course of a year. If they’re caught at the end of this time, they would still only be guilty of a misdemeanor in the State of California (based on the total amount of loss). Although the crime took a year to commit, the perpetrator wouldn’t spend much (if any) time in jail. On the other hand, a murder can take place in the blink of an eye and the resulting punishment will be life in prison (or perhaps the death penalty). The duration of the crime clearly has little or nothing to do with the duration of the penalty.
We Fail to Understand the Magnitude of God’s “Authority”
If your sister catches you lying about your income last year, you might lose her respect. If the IRS catches you lying about your income last year, the resulting punishment will be far more painful. What’s the difference here? It certainly isn’t the crime. Instead, we recognize the more authoritative the source of the code, rule or law, the greater the punishment for those who are in violation. If God is the Highest Authority, we should expect that violations of His “laws” would result in significant punishment(s).
We Fail to Understand the Depth of Our “Sin”
Finally, it’s important to remember the nature of the crime that eventually leads one to Hell. It’s not the fact you kicked your dog in 1992. It’s not the fact you had evil thoughts about your teacher in 1983. The crime that earns us a place in Hell is our rejection of the true, living, eternal God. The rejection of God’s forgiveness is not finite. People who reject Jesus have rejected Him completely. They have rejected Him as an ultimate, final mortal decision. God has the right (and obligation) to judge them with an appropriate punishment. To argue that God’s punishment does not fit our crime is to underestimate our crime.
The Bible describes Hell as a place where those who have rejected God will suffer the torment of their decision. Share on X
The Bible describes Hell as a place where those who have rejected God will suffer the torment of their decision. It’s an appropriate punishment given the magnitude of God’s ultimate authority and the mortal opportunities for each of us to choose otherwise in this life.
For more information about the reliability of the New Testament gospels and the case for Christianity, please read Cold-Case Christianity: A Homicide Detective Investigates the Claims of the Gospels. This book teaches readers ten principles of cold-case investigations and applies these strategies to investigate the claims of the gospel authors. The book is accompanied by an eight-session Cold-Case Christianity DVD Set (and Participant’s Guide) to help individuals or small groups examine the evidence and make the case.
J. Warner Wallace is a Dateline featured Cold-Case Detective, Senior Fellow at the Colson Center for Christian Worldview, Adj. Professor of Christian Apologetics at Talbot School of Theology, Biola University, author of Cold-Case Christianity, God’s Crime Scene, and Forensic Faith, and creator of the Case Makers Academy for kids.
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Sue King
September 3, 2020 at 12:31 pm
Was Jesus lying then when He said in John 3:16 that
those who believe in him will not perish.
vince
September 24, 2020 at 3:27 pm
If people would stop taking verse 16 out of context they will see that in verse 15 Jesus is speaking, in verse 16-21 these are the comments of the writer (whoever he was because he wasn’t John). The commenter said believe, Jesus said REPENT.
Jesus also said “On that day, many will say LORD, LORD… and I will say depart from me worker of iniquity I never knew you”. And sadly that’s gonna be a whole lot of “believers” that think they’re Christian.
Hello Fellow Christian
September 17, 2020 at 3:51 am
Please reconsider this article for this ignores parts of the scriptures where Hell is described to be a real place of torment with fire = burning (eternal)
and In Matthew 13:42, Jesus says: “And shall cast them into a FURNACE OF FIRE: there shall be wailing and gnashing of teeth.”
In Matthew 25:41, Jesus says: “Depart from me, ye cursed, into everlasting FIRE,. . .”
Revelation 20:15 says, ” And whosoever was not found written in the book of life was cast into the LAKE OF FIRE.”
Mark 9:46, Jesus Christ says about hell: “Where THEIR WORM dies not, and the fire is not quenched.”
Gordon
December 19, 2020 at 1:18 pm
Calling Tartarus a consequence and not a punishment is unbiblical. It’s just wiggling around and trying to redraw the fact that it is a sentence, a judgement, and a punishment made by God. He is under no obligation to punish: he has every right to purgate, destroy, or redeem us, but he decides to subject us to infinite torment and indifference to us. This is explicitly repeated that God does this to us for not obeying, if eonian destruction is eternal pain.
It is not hard to argue then that torment is indeed torture when it a punishment. If God denies me his presence or love, what difference is that from torturing a prisoner by putting them in solitary confinement for life, or denying food just enough to keep him on the brink of starvation? In the same way, in this theory of hell, God is sustaining our souls infinitely, but sustaining them in pain.
While the argument of duration is valid, it does not fully address the unsaid question of result. The results of sin are finite while we are on earth. Even an act of rape is healed after the victim is resurrected. God alone decides whom he will avenge, correct, or forgive. And according to the book of Job, he is completely unaccountable for this decision.
It’s also not defining what it means to reject God. If I’m lied-to about Jesus all my life, am I really rejecting him? The people of Nineveh couldn’t tell, in God’s merciful hyperbole, “their right from left;” meaning they were so deceived that they didn’t know right from wrong.
If I were taught to believe that Satan is the messiah and Jesus is the devil, and I follow Jesus’ commandments under Satan’s name, am I rejecting Jesus?
The most unfair part of this theology is original sin.
The Psalmist wrote that God “knitted me together in my mother’s womb,” and that “I was guilty from birth.” God arranged my birth with this sinful nature; how am I committing an infinite offense for following my nature?
For these reasons, I suspect we are misreading the nature of the afterlife, and that, vecause God alone is immortal, and much of the description of Tartarus is of destruction, and some as a refinery, that the Lake of Fire is either destructive, purgative, or both.
How can we reject God when we are deceived?
Randy
March 24, 2022 at 10:02 am
Psalm 139:13 ESV
For you formed my inward parts; you knitted me together in my mother’s womb.
Psalm 51:5 ESV
Behold, I was brought forth in iniquity, and in sin did my mother conceive me.
Two different Psalms with two different points referring to birth. King David believed what all good Jews did when he wrote this. At least they are attributed to his authorship. Christians have the same understanding, chiefly that God designed us as we read in Genesis, which Ps. 139 betokens.
But we also know God only directly created Adam & Eve, to whom He gave the power of procreation. It’s not Biblical to think God made you or me. He didn’t need to. There is no well of souls from which you descended into your zygote. This is all pagan and immature thinking. I’m sure you agree based on your comment’s tone.
Since God designed all living things (that I’m aware of) on Earth with DNA, even plants, which is passed on from “parents”, then even Eve was created with Adam’s DNA and not as he was (from clay, or hydrogen which modern science says we likely “came from” with their focus on evolution and biology)
David wasn’t ignorant of Genesis. Psalm 139 references God’s creation which continues, though faulty after the fall.
Ps 51 is stating that David was conceived in sin, and then born a sinner. Other translations focus on this aspect of the Hebrew. David is saying his parents were sinners when they got pregnant, and he was unfortunately unable to avoid being born as such.
For the record, I agree with 75% of your comment. I believe 1000% in God’s justice and love. Nothing even exists or can outside His being. God didn’t create here while He stood there. Again, more pagan and immature thinking. God is so far beyond having the capacity to properly judge us. I don’t doubt Him. I don’t like the fact Hell exists either, but that’s my problem, not God’s.
I also know that in Revelation it says Jesus and the Angels preside over the souls in Hell. Some Christians argued with me that this verse didn’t exist. Very loving and knowledgeable and useful believers. I had to gently show them the verse.
Rev 14:10 ESV
he also will drink the wine of God’s wrath, poured full strength into the cup of his anger, and he will be tormented with fire and sulfur in the presence of the holy angels and in the presence of the Lamb.
And yet the Old Testament and the Jews that inhabit its pages didn’t have much info about Hell or the Afterlife in general. Heaven was where God lived and they would be with Him if He allowed it.
Sheol, Tartarus, and so many Jewish concepts of post mortem existence seem Greek, but we know the Athenians learned half their philosophy from Egyptian priests and other cultures, though my dusky hued friends who descend from them would tell me otherwise, and that they invented inventing among other things like bread, breathing O² and lettuce. Windex as well.
We might gain insight into God’s “style” of punishment and thus Hell from Genesis and the Garden incident. It follows logically that if the consequence of disobedience was God cursing the Earth, Adam & Eve, and the Serpent in a way that was active and not automatically happening from eating the fruit or tempting others, then it makes sense Hell and it’s torture might be the same.
Of course the serpent was different than the young couple. He knew better in ways they didn’t. So I think his curse may have been at least in part directly manifested by God. Part of what followed may have been the natural consequences of the demotion and pronouncement by God.
Adam & Eve though had been interfered with by one of God’s children, and not just any, but a Seraph of the highest order. Maybe even the first of his kind. The Adam of his race so to speak.
This is my answer to people who think God lied when He said Adam & Eve would die when eating the fruit. God spoke these words before Lucifer got involved. God knowing what would happen is another discussion.
I think now that the first humans suffered consequences that were mainly natural, and the rest happened because they no longer had the authority to tell a plant to grow or an animal to go there. They also lacked the I.Q. to grasp far more than Solomon ever did, even with his gift from God of vast wisdom.
And yet they could have lived forever in this fallen state. Thus the Angel guarding the entrance to the Garden and the Tree of Life. Gen 3:24.
Most Christians think Hell for humans is partly a guilt by association scenario where we are lumped into Satan’s destiny because we somehow were joined to him in disobedience and the sharing of authority. Jesus calling Pharisees the children of the Devil didn’t seem allegorical.
So that’s my 5 cents worth. Gehenna was the local trash dump outside the walls of Jerusalem in Jesus’s time though ot was also an entire valley, the Valley of Hinnom (Gehenna). Bodies of criminals were also burned and the fires never went out day and night. Hell is the worst fate, worse than physical death, but God didn’t break down all its points for us. Just enough to scare us, like telling a child not to touch the stove. Rhe reality is likely much worse than anything we can comprehend.
Greg Shlapak
January 2, 2023 at 6:50 pm
God will save all, because He says He wants all saved and with God nothing is impossible and God says “I will do ALL that pleases me.” Time does not restrict God and He can help people to repent and believe for ages and ages into the “future”. The Bible says God will “Make ALL things new.” “He will wipe tears from ALL faces.” Isaiah 25:8
David Aaron Beaty
August 13, 2025 at 8:57 am
Hello Mr. Wallace, and thank you for this article here. In addition to what you mentioned here in your article, I think there is another major philosophical problem with the traditional view of hell as endless conscious torment. I think the traditional view is a major philosophical violation of what we instinctively know true love to be. I think we know instinctively that true love is not true love if we are invited to enter into a marriage with someone and that someone offers their love, but then says they will put us in a basement and allow us to wallow in our own misery for 50 years if we don’t marry them. This is not an offer of love, even if the 50 years of misery are self-inflicted and just the result of being isolated. There has to be a way out, or a way to voluntarily turn down the marriage proposal in order for that proposal to be a proposal which is accompanied by real love. God offering us eternal life or else being in misery for eternity is not a choice and does not allow us to see who God really is and what his love really is. It obscures our view of his kindness:
[Romans 2:4 NASB20] 4 Or do you think lightly of the riches of His kindness and restraint and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads you to repentance?
Would you advise your sister or niece to accept a marriage proposal which is accompanied by a threat of 50 years of misery if she did not accept the proposal? This is likely why polling such as that done by McCrindle and olive tree media in Australia has shown repeatedly for many years that the mainstream concept of hell and judgment, which involves eternal conscious torment, is reported by non-christians as one of the biggest reasons why they want nothing to do with Christianity. The traditional view of hell as eternal conscious torment is not bringing people to God. It is driving them away. I have personally spoken with many of these people who have deconstructed from and left Christianity or simply stayed away for a long time until they learned more of what the Bible really says about hell. In regard to hell, many who hold to the eternal conscious torment view will mention that punishment is “eternal” in the Bible, meaning that the torment lasts forever. This is in spite of the fact that the same Greek word aionios, eternal is used in the New Testament to describe verbal nouns over and over again which by their very nature are not themselves things which last for eternity. They are things which have endless results. A few examples are:
eternal sin
eternal salvation
eternal judgment
eternal redemption
None of these things above last for eternity. They are processes which are accomplished in a finite amount of time and then the results are endless. Considering all of the passages below, could eternal punishment also be in this category?
[Hebrews 10:26-27, 39 ESV] 26 For if we go on sinning deliberately after receiving the knowledge of the truth, there no longer remains a sacrifice for sins, 27 but a fearful expectation of judgment, and a fury of fire that will consume the adversaries. … 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls.
The author of Hebrews above is using the phrase “fire that will consume the adversaries” to intentionally contextualize his wording, “preserve their souls” in verse 39 above. Look below in Isaiah where the author of Hebrews is borrowing this fiery phrase from:
[Isaiah 26:11, 14, 19 CSB] 11 LORD, your hand is lifted up to take action, but they do not see it. Let them see your zeal for your people and be put to shame. Let fire consume your adversaries. … 14 The dead do not live; departed spirits do not rise up. Indeed, you have punished and destroyed them; you have wiped out all memory of them. … 19 Your dead will live; their bodies will rise. Awake and sing, you who dwell in the dust! For you will be covered with the morning dew, and the earth will bring out the departed spirits.
The content of Isaiah 26 above sounds a lot like Jesus in Matthew here:
[Matthew 10:28 NASB20] 28 “And do not be afraid of those who kill the body but are unable to kill the soul; but rather fear Him who is able to destroy both soul and body in hell.
And then here’s Isaiah saying almost the same thing as Jesus above in regard to those who side with antichrist during the tribulation:
[Isaiah 10:17-18 NASB20] 17 And the Light of Israel will become a fire and Israel’s Holy One a flame, And it will burn and devour his thorns and his briars in a single day. 18 And He will destroy the glory of his forest and of his fruitful garden, both soul and body, And it will be as when a sick person wastes away.
And then considering the content of the passages I’ve just shown, is it possible that these Thessalonians verses below are translated properly, expressing the same concept? The Thessalonians verses below are about the day of the Lord, just as Isaiah 26 and Isaiah 10 above are:
[1 Thessalonians 5:2-3, 23 LSB] 2 For you yourselves know full well that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. 3 While they are saying, “Peace and safety!” then destruction will come upon them suddenly like labor pains upon a woman who is pregnant, and they will never escape. … 23 Now may the God of peace Himself sanctify you entirely, and may your spirit and soul and body be preserved complete, without blame at the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ.
And then we might see James adding onto the same theme here:
[James 5:19-20 NASB20] 19 My brothers and sisters, if anyone among you strays from the truth and someone turns him back, 20 let him know that the one who has turned a sinner from the error of his way will save his soul from death and cover a multitude of sins.
James above sounds a lot like Ezekiel here from the Septuagint:
[Ezekiel 18:4, 27 Lexham English Septuagint] 4 For all lives are mine; the way is the life of the father, so also the life of the son; they are mine; the soul that sins, this is the one that will die. ……. 27 But when a lawless person turns back from his lawlessness which he committed, and he does justice and righteousness, this one has kept his soul.
Of course, what I’m hinting at here is the doctrine of annihilationism, just as you mention it in your article, that the wicked finally cease to exist after having received a just period of torment which is commensurate to the severity of their sins. To address the eternal life versus eternal punishment argument regarding hell, which has its basis in Matthew 25:46, we could understand that, part of the eternal punishment for sin is just death, and both its results and the process of it being administered both last forever.
[Matthew 25:46 NASB20] 46 “These will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.”
The wicked are just dead and gone forever, just as Jesus describes far above in Matthew 10:28. They are endlessly being punished with an ongoing punishment of death and the results of that ongoing punishment are also endless. They are endlessly dead:
[Romans 6:23 NASB20] 23 For the wages of sin is death, but the gracious gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.
[John 3:16 NASB20] 16 “For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, so that everyone who believes in Him will not perish, but have eternal life.
Giving consideration to the doctrine of annihilationism of course runs us right into Revelation 14:11 and revelation 20:10 which seem so definitively to have no agreement with annihilationism whatsoever. In my latest work “Hell is Made Holy”, I tackle Revelation 14:11 and Revelation 20:10 to show how the language of the smoke going up forever is a reference to the Old Testament sacrificial system, not a description of endless torment. The smoke from the sacrificial system represents complete and utter destruction under God’s wrath against sin, not endless torment. In regard to Revelation 20:10, there are eight Old Testament prophecies which foretell that satan will be killed in the future not tormented endlessly. These passages are Genesis 3:14-15; Matthew 4:5-6; Psalm 91:11-13; Romans 16:19-20; Habakkuk 3:12-13; Ezekiel 28:11-19; Isaiah 27:1; Job 26:12-13. To see a few:
[Isaiah 27:1 NASB20] 1 On that day the LORD will punish Leviathan the fleeing serpent, With His fierce and great and mighty sword, Even Leviathan the twisted serpent; And He will kill the dragon who lives in the sea.
[Ezekiel 28:13-14, 18-19 NASB20] 13 “You were in Eden, the garden of God; Every precious stone was your covering: The ruby, the topaz and the diamond; The beryl, the onyx and the jasper; The lapis lazuli, the turquoise and the emerald; And the gold, the workmanship of your settings and sockets, Was in you. On the day that you were created They were prepared. 14 “You were the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there. You were on the holy mountain of God; You walked in the midst of the stones of fire. … 18 “By the multitude of your wrongdoings, In the unrighteousness of your trade You profaned your sanctuaries. Therefore I have brought fire from the midst of you; It has consumed you, And I have turned you to ashes on the earth In the eyes of all who see you. 19 “All who know you among the peoples Are appalled at you; You have become terrified And you will cease to be forever.”‘”
I believe Revelation 14:11 and 20:10 are the only ones remaining that don’t elsewhere have a fully developed annihilationist interpretation. Many have proposed different solutions as to what the symbolism in these verses represents, but none have been able to make a very strong case to support their theories. If you or your readers would be interested in seeing the full evidence, you can easily find “Hell is Made Holy” for no green using just my full name, David Aaron Beaty.
As just an afterthought here, it could be said too that starting off with the philosophical assumption that the soul is eternal and cannot or will not be killed by God, as many Bible interpreters conclude, is not necessarily in line with concepts in the Bible. We could interpret the two passages below to mean that immortality of the soul is not a given for everyone, but is only granted to those who follow God:
[2 Timothy 1: 10 WEB] but has now been revealed by the
appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death,
and brought life and immortality to light through the Good
News.
[1 Timothy 6:15-16 NASB20] 15 which He will bring about at the proper time–He who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, 16 who alone possesses immortality and dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To Him be honor and eternal dominion! Amen.
Thank you again for your article and God bless you, your readers, and your ministry.